Review: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Year of Wonders is based on the history of the small Derbyshire village of Eyam that, when beset upon by the plague in 1666, quarantines itself in order to prevent the disease from spreading further. The story is told through the eyes of one woman, Anna Frith and focusses particularly on her close relationship with the minister's wife Elinor.

Although it may seem odd that a novel of the plague is named 'Year of Wonders', I think this title really suits it. In her afterword Brooks descibes the title in terms of how Anna might have interpreted God's actions 'God works in mysterious ways hus wonders to perform'. But truly, for Anna, it is a year of wonders. While she loses both her children in the plague, but gains literacy and extensive medicinal and herbal knowledge as the 'plague year' goes on. The book is a relatively quick read, but is also very powerful. I particularly liked the ending, where Anna chooses independence and freedom over a more conventional and certain future. The middle eastern flavour of the ending is unexpected, though understandable in light of Brook's career as a journalist. I have no idea how accurate the history is, but I also loved the sense of place the novel gives - both in terms of the history and development of the plague, as well as the morality of puritanical England.

2009 Booklist

What I read in 2009:

1. In the Forest, Edna O'Brien (realistic)
   
2. Carol, Patricia Highsmith (full of tremor and threat)
   
3. Magic or Madness, Justine Larbalestier (intriguing start)
   
4. Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks (wondrous)
   
5. The Radiant Way, Margaret Drabble (dense with detail)
   
6. Magic Lessons, Justine Larbalestier (okaaaayy)
   
7. Magic's Child, Justine Larbalestier (overall not as good as Westerfeld)
   
8. How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier (lightweight)
   
9. Holidays from Hell, P. J. O'Rourke (enlightening)
   
10. On the Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta (good, although the end faded for me)
    
11. Unless, Carol Shields (meditative)
    
12. The Sittaford Mystery, Agatha Christie (fun!! - for a murder)
    
13. Crash, J.G. Ballard (hallucinatory)
    
14. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Phillip K. Dick (good!)
    
15. Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates (absorbing)
    
16. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (interesting but overly dramatic)
    
17. The Steel Remains, Richard Morgan (uncut)
    
18. The Magician's Guild, Trudi Canavan (formulaic)
    
19. Black Man, Richard Morgan (twisty!)
    
20. Diary of a Nobody, George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith (lovely!!)
    
21. My Israel Question, Antony Lowenstein (eye opening)
    
22. The Novice, Trudi Canavan (much improved on first)
    
23. The High Lord, Trudi Canavan (good conclusion)
    
24. Death before Wicket, Kerry Greenwood (OTT)
    
25. Angels Fall, Nora Roberts (cheese on a stick)
    
26. Busconductor Hines, James Kelman (lively)
    
27. Empire of the Sun, J.G. Ballard (stunning)
    
28. Gossip Girl, Cecily Von Ziegesar (ehh)
    
29. The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer, Ann Stuart (pretty awful)
    
30. Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, Helen Fielding (Bridget is better)
    
31. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (charming, plus recipes!)
    
32. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin (charming, plus san francisco!!)
    
33. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre (gritty)
    
34. Deadly Unna?, Phillip Gwynne (confronting)
    
35. The Terminal Man, Sir Alfred Mehran (limbo)
    
36. Around the World in 80 Dates, Jennifer Cox (fluff, but engaging)
    
37. My Place, Sally Morgan (profound)
    
38. Dreaming Down-Under - Volume 1, ed. Jack Dann and Janeen Webb (solid)
    
39. Dreaming Down-Under - Volume 2, ed. Jack Dann and Janeen Webb (better)
    
40. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John le Carre (complicated)
    
41. Shadows in Bronze, Lindsay Davis (a bit ADD)
    
42. Cocaine Nights, J. G. Ballard (climactic)
    
43. Poseiden's Gold, Linday Davis (good!)
    
44. Last Act in Palmyra, Lindsay Davis (also good!)
    
45. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (also good too!)
    
46. The Red Queen, Margaret Drabble (a tale in two halves)
    
47. Otherworld, Tad Williams (OMFG SO LOOONG! Am not reading parts 2-4)
    
48. Learning to Walk, Lisa Burnette (fantastic read - very honest and open)
    
49. Coraline, Neil Gaiman (short, sweet)
    
50. Sexing the Cherry, Jeanette Winterson (craaazy, not at all what I expected)
    
51. The Women, T.C. Boyle, (loved it!)
    
52. The Whorl and the Pallin, Ian Nichols (not bad (not *great*))
    
53. The Scarecrow, Sean Williams (short, sweet)
    
54. The Book from Baden Dark, James Moloney (ok)
    
55. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (am out of superlatives ATM, but I did like it)
    
56. Shopgirl, Steve Martin (sweet)
    
57. The Sea, John Banville (lyrical)
    
58. Tallow, Karen Brooks (ok)
    
59. Passing, Nella Larsen (eye opening)
    
60. Gotta B, Claire Carmichael (ok)
    
61. Time of Trial, Michael Pryor (interesting premise)
    
62. Siggy and Amber, Doug MacLeod(fairly light)
    
63. The Museum of Mary Child, Cassandra Golds (something special)
    
64. Scribble, Gregory Bourne (irritating author, but fun)
    
65. The Nest, Paul Jennings (compulsive, harrowing)
    
66. Dream Raider, KC Webb (derivative, yawn)
    
67. Thy Fiefdom Comes, David KoChin (omg. worst puns ever!!!)
    
68. Cupid's Arrow, Isabelle Merlin (fluff)
    
69. The Whale's Tale, Edwina Harvey (very small press)
    
70. Jatta, Jenny Hale (good, if overwhelming)
    
71. Third Transmission, Jack Heath (better than expected)
    
72. The Shocking Trouble on the Planet of Shobble, L.M. Moriarty (kiddy fun)
    
73. The Wicked War on the Planet of Whimsy, L.M. Moriarty (more kiddy fun)
    
74. The Puzzle Ring, Kate Forsyth (clever)
    
75. Silas and the Winterbottoms, Stephen M. Giles (nasty)
    
76. The Zoo of Magical and Mythological Creatures, Sam Bowring (lovely!)
    
77. The Reformed Vampire Support Group, Catherine Jinks (slightly feeble)
    
78. A Small Free Kiss in the Dark, Glenda Millard (illuminating)
    
79. Worldshaker, Richard Harland(good alternate world)
    
80. Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld (great alternate world)
    
81. Horn, Peter M. Ball (short, sharp, worth reading)
    
82. Tears of the Giraffe, Alexander McCall Smith (lovely! more heart than #1)
    
83. Liar, Justin Larbalestier (one of the best books I've read this year)
    
84. Two Pearls of Wisdom, Alison Goodman(interesting premise, a bit humdrum in execution)
    
85. Glasshouse, Charles Stross (took a while to get going, but interesting!)
    
86. New Ceres Nights, ed. Alisa Krasnostein and Tehani Wessely (great and cohesive anthol)
    
87. Peter Pan and Wendy, J. M. Barrie(very adult for a kid's book!!)
    
88. The Workers Paradise, ed. Russel B. Farr and Nick Evans (interesting topic that worked pretty well as an anthol)
    
89. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinback (fantastic - immense and human at the same time)
    
90. Magic Dirt, Sean Williams (Ed. Russel B. Farr) (did not live up to expectations)
    
91. Roadkill/Siren Beat, Rob Shearman/Tansy Rayner Roberts (great double!!)
    
92. The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction And Fantasy, Volume 1, ed. Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt(good anthology of Aus spec fic)
    
93. Slights, Kaaron Warren (meaty and complex)
    
94. The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction And Fantasy, Volume 2, ed. Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt(more excellent Aus spec fic)
    

Review: Prismatic by Edwina Grey

I quite enjoyed Prismatic - it's an interesting book from a number of different viewpoints. Firstly there's the 'author', Edwina Grey, who is actually three different authors (David Carroll, Kyla Ward and Evan Paliatseas), who each wrote one of three narratives which have been braided together to form the whole. The narratives each take place in Sydney, but in a different time, in 1789 with the first settlers, in 1919 after the first great War and during an influenza pandemic, and finally 'Now'. In each time a disease, 'Prism' which causes carriers to see prisms of light, be prone to extremes of anger and violence and, er, eating brains. While Prism was contained in the earlier periods, it poses much more of a threat in modern Sydney - not only because of its larger population and the ability to travel almost anywhere in hours - but also because of a (ancient??) evil who is trying to use Prism for their own advantage. Each section of the story was well written and I really enjoyed the historical aspects of the 1798 and 1919 sections. I'm not sure how much Prism is supposed to echo zombism, though it certainly did for me. Jacqueline, protagonist of 'Now' and I guess the overall hero of the tale is not a stereotypical one. Covered in tatts, peircings and self doubt, she fumbles to the final ending, which did actually surprise me, although looking back it wasn't *that* an original twist. While the action did seem a little random at time, particular in the 'now', overall I felt the story did well in striving for something original and readable.

Review: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

I read 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter' for my bookclub. I found it a real chore - it's the first of our book club books to make me feel this way. 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter' is a twist on the age old 'twins separated at birth'. In this case an unexpected blizzard forces a doctor, David Henry, to deliver his wife's twins. The first twin, a boy named Paul, is fine. However, the second, a girl called Phoebe, has Down's syndrome. In 1964, Down's syndrome was an early death sentence and so David tells his wife that Phoebe has died to spare her inevitable heartache. Caroline Gill, a nurse and the only other witness to the birth, is persuaded to take Phoebe to a home, but instead takes Phoebe and raises her as her own. From this the book continues in duel narrative, David and Norah Henry with Paul, and Caroline with Phoebe.

This book shouldn't have been as tedious as I found it. It spans from 1964 to 1989, explores women's lib, and rights for disabled children. It show brief interludes of each family's life over the 25 year period, demonstrating pivotal moments in each. I think one of the main problems I had with this book, though, was how it is told. Because it is just that - *told*, not shown. There is reams of description and very little dialogue. I found the narrative deathly slow and lifeless. Much of the book relies on probing psychological effect of Phoebe's 'death' on the Henry's marriage and family life, but all these characters felt wooden to me and I just didn't care. Perhaps even worse, characters think the same thoughts over and over, particularly Norah Henry as she ruminates over her lost daughter. Perhaps this is realistic, but it didn't make for an interesting book. In summary: great cover, a good title (although the way Edward's shoehorned the title's meaning into the book was pretty eyerolling - ambiguity would have been better), *terrible* story!!!

Review: The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld

'The Last Days' is a follow up to Westerfeld's earlier book 'Peeps', which posits vampirism as an infection with an insidious parasite that makes victims stronger, gives them excellent night vision and smell, an almost debilitating libido, but also an anathema to everything they once loved. 'The Last Days' is very different to 'Peeps', however. While Peeps was really about exploring the idea of parasitism (with real life scientific excerpts in between chapters), 'The Last Days' is really about music and the formation of a band. A band that just happens to form at the same time as the apocalypse that was looming in the final chapters of 'Peeps'.

Moz and Zahler have been jamming for 6 years, but their rock star dreams only start to become real when Moz meets Pearl while rescuing a 1975 Strat with gold pickups (that's a guitar, dudes) that some Peep-infected woman is throwing out her window (the anathema, dude). Pearl is a music whiz and highly organised. She rejigs Moz and Zahler's winding rifs and, after recruiting drummer Alana Ray and singer Minerva, the band is on it's way to fame. But what if the world ends before they can make it big???

I'd heard that 'The Last Days' wasn't as good as 'Peeps'. However, I think I actually enjoyed 'The Last Days' more than 'Peeps', which is saying something because I did really like Peeps. Perhaps it was that I was expecting it to be bad and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't. However, I also really liked the fact that, in this apocalyptic book, the main characters are only peripherally aware of what is going on. (Of course, once a giant worm thing erupts in their first gig, it becomes hard to ignore). Normality has a strong pull and it was great to see an apocalypse written about this way.

While the main characters from Peeps do make an entrance in the book, the story is told by Moz, Pearl. Zahler Minerva and Alana Ray in alternating chapters. I really enjoyed the changing point of views, and oddly enough, I found the book to be a bit 'younger' than 'Peeps'. The characters are younger (though only marginally - by a couple of years) and there's less of an emphasis on the sexual transmission of the parasites. Perhaps the band is a bit more naive, a bit less serious, as relfected by their relative lack of interest in the apocalypse.

Once again, Westerfeld has shown and understanding of the young people's language, a feat he pulled off so excellently the 'Uglies trilogy'. In this case, random words had a random 'f' in front of them: fool, fexcellent - totally fawesome! Finally I *loved* the fact that each chapter is named after a real band. I didn't notice until I got to Westerfeld's explanation at the end, but it was cool to look through and see who I could identify after the fact.

Review: Rynosseros by Terry Dowling and Blue Tyson by Terry Dowling

This is probably a controversial statement, but Tom 'Blue' Tyson really reminds me of James Bond. Sure, he's not quite as big a womaniser (although he certainly has some affinity with the ladies). But otherwise - he's a bit of a loner, in charge of his own destiny, and in many of the tales he's solving a mystery or a problem just like Bond would be.

'Rynosseros' and 'Blue Tyson' are the first two of four collections of linked short stories, all describing a dry and altered future Australia, with an interesting mixture of aborigianl and arabic (??) cultures. As a concept I really liked the linkages, as the collection kept a cohesion otherwise lacking in some collections. Each story remains individual, but there are is also a definite narrative running through the books. Terry Dowling experiments plays with several different styles. Stories are in both first person and third. Tom Tyson features heavily in most, but in a few he is barely mentioned. Setting so many stories in the same shared universe has other advantages. Dowling has the luxury of revealing his Australia slowly, with deepening commentary about the society and Tom Tyson's past. Definitely enjoyed these books and would like to read the remaining two, "Twilight Beach", and "Rynemonn".

Review: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

This is the fourth bookclub book I've read this year and I really enjoyed it. I've not read any Steinbeck before but, from what I knew of 'Of Mice and Men' and 'The Grapes of Wrath', I had always considered him a 'depressing' writer. 'Cannery Row' is not depressing, rather it is whimsical and charming - despite being set during the Great Depression. There's not so much of a story line in 'Cannery Row' (though there is a climax at the end), instead each (short) chapter describes a scene or character from Cannery Row, a strip of land in Monterrey California near a sardine factory.

I got the feeling that much of this book is based on people Steinbeck knew - the characters were described very affectionately, even when they weren't perhaps the most like able of people on the surface. One of the most interesting characters was 'Doc' a marine biologist who runs a business supplying biological specimens. It was great to read of pre-war science in such an unexpected venue. Apparently 'Doc' was based on Steinbeck's real life friend Ed Ricketts, real-life marine biologist and philospher. I was fascinated by the detail of biology and the sea that Steinbeck is able to provide, although also slightly alarmed at how Doc plundered the sea for specimens. Would that happen these days? I doubt it.

Anyway, the major 'storyline' of the piece involves the antics of 'Mack and the boys' who want to give Doc a party in appreciation of his help. Their plans initially have disasterous results and it's a tribute to Steinbeck's writing that I was genuinely concerned that their second attempt would end similarly. Fortunately the book ends on a contented note, with the second-to-last chapter describing the life history of a 'well grown gopher' being one of my favorites. I'd definitely be up for reading the sequel 'Sweet Thursday' (and also some of Steinbeck's more depressing reads too) and I'd love to read more about Ed Ricketts too.